Robert Downey JR gives Tony Stark a run for the money

David Konow, 20th May 2012

We all know that in Hollywood that A-list movie stars make enough money to buy a small country, and if you're big enough to get gross points, or a generous back end deal, you can back the Brinks truck right up to the front door.

A lot of stars these days are making movies for relatively smaller money up front in exchange for big back end deals, and with a lot of budgets going sky high, this is what's allowing a lot of movies to get made these days. (As we've previously reported here on TG, The Lone Ranger actually got shut down by Disney, who are notoriously cheap, until Johnny Depp and director Gore Verbinski agreed to back end deals to help keep the budget down).

While Robert Downey Jr. may never approach Tony Stark's level of wealth, apparently thanks to The Avengers he's about to become at least $50 million richer.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, like Disney, Marvel is "famously frugal" in making movies, but because of Downey's deal, and the enormous box office success of The Avengers, he may indeed earn $50 million or more from the film.

The Reporter also tells us, Downey's take is much better than the other Avengers in the cast, "all of whom will make a small fraction of Downey's total." Apparently when Iron Man became a hit, Downey's peeps set up a deal that includes a piece of Marvel's revenue from future Iron Man movies, somewhere in the range of 5 to 7%, which may not sound like much, but with the Iron Man series and The Avengers making ginormous bucks, it definitely will all add up.

The Reporter also confirmed that Marvel made tough deals for the other stars, who will make $2-3 million each, plus bonuses. (Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson are reportedly making twice this, with bonuses). Then again, there should be at least two more Avengers films to come, more Thor, Captain America, and Hulk flicks to come, meaning all these actors will be gainfully employed for years to come at much more than minimum wage. If that's the bottom of the ladder, we'd be more than happy to take it ourselves.